www.OhioFarmer.com ■ January 2010
7
Ohio News Watch
No-tillers offer cover crop tips
E
SHOWTIME: Farmer Tom Finkenbine (right) and Roger Bender, Ohio State University Extension ag
agent in Shelby County, look over the cover crops grown in demonstration plots on Finkenbine’s farm.
Cover crop choice
depends on fields
Key Points
■ Shelby County demo plots
show cover crop examples.
■ Cover crops benefit soil quality
and nutrient management.
■ Recommendations vary
depending on production goals.
By GAIL C. KECK
OOKING across the 14 different cover crop plots on
Tom Finkenbine’s farm,
it’s natural to wonder which
one’s the best. But no one crop
will be best for every situation.
The demonstration plots are
meant to give farmers a good
look at a variety of cover crop
options, explains Roger Bender,
Ohio State University Extension
ag agent in Shelby County. To
pick the best option for their
fields, farmers will need to determine what benefits are most
important in each situation.
For instance, Bender points
out, legumes such as Austrian
winter peas, cowpeas, chickling vetch and crimson clover
can fix nitrogen in the soil
for use by the following crop.
Brassicas like oilseed radish
can loosen compacted soil,
stockpile excess nutrients and
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FIND COVER: The cover crop demonstration plots on Tom
Finkenbine’s farm will be marked through corn harvest next year,
and farmers are welcome to stop and see the field anytime. See
the story at right for directions.
hold down winter annual weed
pressure. Grasses such as tall
fescue, sudangrass, rye and
wheat build soil organic matter,
reduce compaction and recycle
excess nutrients.
Finkenbine, who is hosting
the demonstration on his farm
near Anna, is particularly interested in how the oilseed radishes perform in his cropping
system. In the past, he’s used
rye and wheat as cover crops.
“Both work very well,” he
says, “but the problem is getting it killed in the spring.” The
radishes typically don’t live
through winter weather, so he’s
hoping to see the soil-loosening
benefits without having to deal
with a living cover crop in the
spring before planting.
VENTUALLY, bare ground in a farm field will be a rare
sight, predicts Steve Groff, a cover crop researcher and notill farmer from Holtwood, Pa. As farmers become aware of the
benefits of using cover crops, more of them are protecting and
improving their soil with cover crops, he explains. “The trend is
upward, so you’ll probably be doing it one day or another, one
decade or another.”
Groff, who spoke at the recent Ohio No-Till Conference,
urged farmers to start experimenting with cover crops to learn
how different covers fit into their production systems. They will
require some management adjustments, he stressed. “You’ll
be solving some problems but creating others, all the while
benefiting your soils.”
Along with Groff, other farmers, Extension educators and
crop consultants shared their experience and advice on raising
cover crops during the conference. Here are some highlights:
■ With today’s soybean varieties, there is less yield disadvantage with shorter-season varieties than in the past.
Consider planting shorter-season varieties to allow for more
timely planting of a following cover crop, Groff suggested.
■ After six years of research comparing cropping systems, Ohio State University soil scientist Rafiq Islam is seeing
higher microbial biomass and soil organic matter as well as
crop yields in rotations with cover crops. Conventional tillage
systems are “leaky,” he explained, allowing the loss of soil nutrients. Farmers need to work on developing cropping systems
that mimic natural vegetation, creating a “new steady state”
that is more sustainable.
■ Cover crop “cocktail” mixes can perform better than any
single-crop variety, according to Groff. A mix gives diversity to
the root growth biomass, guards against failure of one species
and can reduce seed cost by stretching high-cost seed with
lower-cost seed. Some mixtures are also complementary in
that plants grow better in the mix than alone.
■ If you’re not ready to devote an entire field to a cover
crop experiment, just try broadcast-seeding a cover crop in
your sweet corn patch or garden, advised Ed Winkle of Hymark
Consulting.
■ Farmers sometimes choose cover crop seed based
mainly on cost, but they’d never do that with corn or soybean
seed, noted Groff. Make sure to consider not only the seed
cost, but also the return on investment from nutrient recycling,
soil quality improvements and other benefits. Even so, inexpensive options, such as sunflowers, fit well in some situations.
The cover crops in the demonstration plots include tall
fescue, sudangrass, Austrian
winter peas, cowpeas, buckwheat, chickling vetch, crimson
clover, rye at two different
seeding rates, bin-run wheat
at two different seeding rates,
treated oats, forage oats and
oilseed radish. They were
planted Aug. 3 following wheat
harvest, and the field will be
planted with no-till corn next
spring. Manure will be applied
to half of each plot.
An adjacent field farmed
by Alan Winner has additional
cover crop demonstrations.
They include plots that were
broadcast-seeded Aug. 3 into
standing soybeans before leaf
drop and plots seeded following
soybean harvest on Sept. 18.
Besides offering advantages
to the soil, cover crops provide financial benefits in some
parts of the state. For example,
Bender points out, the Miami
Conservancy District is offering
a cover crop incentive program
for cropland that drains into the
Great Miami River. It will pay up
to $50 per acre. Farmers should
check with local soil and water
conservation districts for information on available programs.
Keck writes from Raymond.
TUBER POWER: Massive
oilseed radishes suppress
weeds and break up compaction.
Plots open
for viewing
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F you’ll be in the Anna
area or feel like taking a
road trip, stop by the Shelby
County cover crop field
trial site. The plots will be
marked through corn harvest next fall, so anyone can
check out the field conditions throughout the production cycle.
To find the plots, take
Exit 99 off Interstate 75 onto
State Route 119. Go east
three miles, and then turn
south onto Pasco-Montra
Road. Travel one mile to
Meranda Road; then follow
the signs to the field.